WOYWW 842

 OH I WISH IT COULD BE CHRI............

(Nope, can't do that quite yet........!)

Sorry about the lyric today but you'll see why it came to mind in a bit! Joining in with lovely Deskers around the world at Sarah's, it's always inspiring to see what everyone else is creating.

The temps have calmed down so I'm much happier! Funnily enough I've not done much sewing in the past week though I did finish off the cross body bags from the gifted curtain fabric:

Horizontal and vertical beachy stripes! They actually do work really well, I'm hoping to sell some at the Pembrey market this Saturday.  I did do some sorting of strips as I may do another quilt now I have sufficient:

I've tried a few ways of sorting but this method based on length seems to work well for me - I do like creating order out of chaos, in fabric anyway lol!

Most of the crafting has been in a festive knitting theme. I had a few RNLI friends pop around yesterday to pick up patterns/yarn/embellishments for the craft fairs later in the year:

That way I could keep a list of who's making what so we don't end up with too many of one thing. It's so nice that everyone wants to be involved and it means I don't have to make so much. It's the non knitty stuff to organise next. I had made a few samples to show:

The first snowman encouraged his mates to come along.....

And I wouldn't trust this lot either!!  The folks have now got sufficient time to make up stuff as things get busier in October and that's really not that far away.

Another nice session in the dining room was a long overdue catch up with Lynnecrafts!

Great pic! We had a good old chat whilst Lynne crocheted a chicken and I knitted a mouse....as you do! Isn't it lovely that you don't really have to explain that last sentence? Everyone just knows what you're on about *grin*

Have a fab week everyone and have fun. You bored with retirement yet Sarah??! Lololol xxxxxxxxx

WOYWW 841

 IT'S TOO DARN HOT......

Hi all you lovely Deskers - welcome to another week of sharing and desky snooping to see what amazing crafts we're all making. Link up over at Sarah's if you fancy joining in!

Scorchio - that's the only word I can think of that describes the past week. I just can't cope with heat like that so stayed in the cool of the JanCave with a breeze coming through. I also moved my sewing machine downstairs so (a) I was by the open patio doors and (b) the quilt I was binding could spread over the dining table!!

It was nice to see all those blocks coming together.

Putting the binding on involves some slow stitching, you can't rush with a walking foot!

And Ta-Da.....

It turned out ok, I'm quite pleased with the colour layout. See if this goes at the next market in Pembrey on the 26th. I still love the fact that you can make something beautiful out of leftovers xx

I also did a bit of knitting outside in the shade but it was still too hot for me:

The tennis ball in my knitting box is masquerading as a Terry's Chocolate Orange to block out the snowmen covers to a good shape.

Thankfully, the temps have gone down massively over the past couple of days so I've returned to the JanCave - my mission was to have a mass cutting out session of the curtains that my friend Helen donated recently:

I managed to get 4 beach bags, four totes, five cross body bags, 2 pegbags and three zipped bags, not bad eh?  The lined bags were from a YouTube tutorial:

The cotton is lovely and sturdy so this design didn't need any fusible fleece or interfacing, it was relatively quick to make as well. For the lining I used cotton fabric from a duvet cover found in the Dunelm bargain bin (£10 for a superking size!):

I thought it went well - the bags look perfect for the beach so I might put a couple in the tearoom where they sell my stuff, worth a try! Because every penny really does count, the crew from the Burry Port RNLI were out on 12 shouts over the hot weekend, rescuing people cut off by the tide, jet skiers, separated children and broken down fishing boats.  They're an amazing (and brave) bunch of men and women!

And that's it, hope you've all had a good week and have coped with the heat as best as you could. Have fun crafting over the next few days xx

WOYWW 840

IT'S LIKE A HEATWAVE...

After a calmer week temperature wise, it looks like we're heading into another heatwave so I'll be doing my best to keep away from the sun and in the cool of the JanCave!

The unexpected craft fair went really well last Saturday, raised a goodly amount:

The tables were smaller so everything looks a bit crammed on but never mind!  The stall next to me was a ceramics one run by a lovely lady, Planet Janet, who appeared on the TV programme The Great British Throw Down. 

She's as mad as a box of frogs, we had a good chat about the programme. She lives locally so hopefully our paths will cross again some time soon.

I thought I'd dig out the blocks I made recently and put some sashing on them:

I was deciding between two spotty fabrics...

...and went for the dove grey one (you're seeing the wrong side here!)

Trimming them up before attaching the side strip - the blocks were too busy just to sew together, it made my eyes ache!

I've been experimenting with some patterns for later in the year so I apologise now for the next two extremely unseasonal pics.....

These are all small and use up a lot of scrap yarn and when you sew them together.....

Makes a snowman chocolate orange cover! I've got a few RNLI ladies going to knit stuff for the Christmas fairs which start in October so need to get the patterns out soon before holidays etc start. They can make them in their own time then! Btw, there's a tennis ball inside this one, too hot for chocolate right now *grin*

If you're of a delicate nature then look away pronto - you see, I've been trying out another knitting pattern for a doll knitted in one piece, then the features are sewn in place afterwards. I'd done the first stage of the outer and started to laugh, it was like Julia and the Elephant all over again:

Errrrm, it's not good is it? G was wondering what on earth I was making! I'm not sure this pattern is for me, I'd snigger too much, lolol!!!

On that happy note, hope you have a good week and keep as cool as you can xxxx

WOYWW 839

 THE HEAT IS ON.....

Wow, what a Scorcher! It's been way too hot for me over the past week and my little corner of Wales hasn't had it half as bad as some of you lot in the South East.  I feel for you, I really do, hope the temps are going down from today. 

I've spent some time in the JanCave with a nice breeze coming through the open window:

I didn't hang around with the new fabrics as shown last week!

They do make for pretty gift sets! I've got an unexpected craft fair this Saturday (was offered a cancellation spot) so thought I'd make a few more items for the stall.

I love this Klimt-esque sunflower design, it's a really soft cotton too, lovely to handle. I'm doing one set each of the green and yellow lining. There was just enough over to make a little zippy bag or two as well:

Hopefully these will appeal to someone!

My mate Helen passed on some curtains she no longer had use for, they were made from Next Cotton fabric so perfect for upcycling. I started unpicking one afternoon:

Sitting on the JanCave bed in the breeze, it was lovely! However it took me so long to unpick the first one that I just cut off the heading tape of the second, I had to sacrifice some fabric that way but it was either that or my sanity!!  The fabric will make great beach bags or peg bags, perfect around here.

That's it for today, short and sweet. Hope you're keeping as cool as you can xxxxxx

WOYWW 838

 SUMMERTIME AND THE LIVING IS EASY..

Hi there lovely Deskers and welcome to another week of inspiration and camaraderie! Linking with other crafters around the world over at Sarah's Craft Shed.

I didn't enjoy the heat last week and I think we had slightly lower temps than the folks in England. On the plus side, we washed our winter duvet and it dried in two hours flat outside! It meant that I did retreat to the cool of the JanCave and got some cutting out and sewing done:

This is all that's left of 2 metres of 150cm wide fabric, not bad huh?

I got six bags, five glasses cases and four purses out of it...as I've said before, I'm generous with many things in life but not fabric, lol!!

I paired this lovely print with purple and lavender spotty cotton. It's slightly old fashioned I know but it's very pretty in reality.

I'd sold the last of the daffodil and hearts print at the last fair so ordered some more and couldn't resist the 'Klimt' sunflowers. That's a lovely cheery sight isn't it?

There are quite a few birthdays coming up and so I dragged all the card making paraphernalia out of the cupboard and set to:

I used up all sorts of paintings and bits and bobs I've done previously so it was a very satisfying session and made me realise that I need to get the paints out more often, it's so enjoyable and yet I never seem to spare the time, ridiculous really....

And that's it, short and sweet. Hope you're all keeping well and happy, see you on the desks later!

xxxxx

WOYWW 837

 GOLDFINCH IN ITS WAKE

GILDS WITH GRACE

Hello all you lovely Deskers - once again we have our weekly meet up at Sarah's, linking up to see what everyone else is getting up to!

It was a red letter day for me on Saturday, I passed the £10,000 mark with my fundraising, woohoo!! I'm still taken aback by how much I've made by selling my bits and bobs and have to thank many friends for their support.

It was a lovely hall but unfortunately the footfall wasn't great. Nevertheless I made enough to take me past the post and we had a nice day catching up with the other stallholders and some old bandmates of mine!

It's been a busy few days and there hasn't been that much activity in the JanCave:

I had two metres of this pretty cotton and chopped it up into various sizes. It's a strange blue to match and none of my spotty linings went apart from this lilac and lime green, my blues just weren't right!

Life has been busy elsewhere however - we went out for a lovely walk on Father's Day, only locally but the weather was fab. We spotted this sweep of wild orchids:

They normally do grow well around here but this year they are exceptional! It wasn't just in this spot either, they're all over the place:

So pretty, it was a joy to see! We walked through the woods on our way out and returned via the beach:

Rhys took this sneaky shot of us, lol! I use hiking poles for when going over uneven ground, they help my wonky ankle. The tide was just on the turn and we had a happy few minutes watching the kite surfers whizzing over the waves.

Back at home, our bird seed feeder has seen more activity and here was a little bird who made us laugh a lot:

This juvenile goldfinch has been hanging around not entirely sure of how to do things. He's still got a lot of fluffy down under his feathers and he was investigating the fish pond quite closely....

And didn't seem at all certain what to do once he got to the perch! He really made us smile, it's the little things sometimes eh?

Hope you have a marvellous week! xxxxxx

WOYWW 836

 OLD FRIENDS, OLD FRIENDS

SAT ON THE PARKBENCH LIKE BOOK ENDS...

Hello lovely Deskers, hope you've had a good week! Mine has been busy in all sorts of ways.  First, the desk:

I've made a start on the new fabric, the sausage dog is all used up and now I'm starting on the butterflies! 

I used up all the cherry blossom too, making different things and found a small remnant of the blue camo so thought I'd make more cross body bags. The smaller is the dimensions as given in the tutorial but I thought I'd scale it up and have a slightly bigger version too. I'm doing a craft fair this weekend and have tried to make more Welsh stuff for it. These bags are quick to make and no faffing around with zips!

Other than that my time was taken up with a visit from an old friend Liz. The weather wasn't the greatest for her but we had a blustery visit to the harbour and beaches:

We got a bit sand blasted! Liz wanted to see the JanCave, she's a very good sewist herself and had a go at my new machine:

And while it was raining, I got on with a few projects and Liz kindly cut some strips out of the scraps box for the next quilt:

Now that's a good friend eh?! Lol.

Lynnecrafts sent me a pic from a FB group of colleagues from our television days:

You can spot Yours Truly bottom left of the group! I worked on all the series of Crosswits, it was great fun and a fast paced show which kept us on our toes. Like Ancient History now, this was possibly taken 40 years ago!! How is that possible?  Ah well, Tempus Fugit and all that *grin*

Hope you have a great week, keep your fingers crossed for me at the fair on Saturday xxxx